yonah Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Does anyone know any cool sources for asexuality in history? I feel like a lot of the historical stuff is either headcanons (like my obsession with Tesla) or footnotes in a queer document. Any advice? Link to post Share on other sites
TopHatCat Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Due to the social expectation (at least for a chunk of history) of people staying virgins until marriage, I'd look through celibate people (if celibacy is mentioned) who stayed single. We see this with people like Isaac Newton, never married and not really a party animal type. Sometimes their celibacy would be described as the person's choice for religious reasons, but it could also be a respected way to describe how they already felt. Essentially, cause and effect renamed to fit into social context better. I will say that President Buchanan died single, but was officially described in one of my high school classes as our first gay president (an inclusive curriculum but this seemed based off circumstantial evidence). So some people who may fit the bill could have been some other non-straight orientation. Not sure if there's a way to tell them apart should this occur. Link to post Share on other sites
CosineTheCat Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 It hasn't been updated in a while, but here is a short version. Link to post Share on other sites
borkfork Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 https://acinghistory.wordpress.com/ Link to post Share on other sites
drjohnhwatson Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 I feel like asexuality in terms of people's orientation in history is really hard to decide. The societal mores were different then, and the term didn't exist until recently. I would be very hesitant to say that someone is asexual. Link to post Share on other sites
borkfork Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 4 hours ago, drjohnhwatson said: I feel like asexuality in terms of people's orientation in history is really hard to decide. The societal mores were different then, and the term didn't exist until recently. I would be very hesitant to say that someone is asexual. I agree. I think because we have Davinci's journals people feel comfortable calling him asexual, but examples like that are few. We also lost a lot of Hirshfeld's work and library to the Nazis. Edit: Gay Berlin is a good book to start with if you're curious about what else the world lost with the death of the Weimar Republic. Link to post Share on other sites
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